"Bringing back the feeling of being a Benfica fan"

PRESENTATION

Convinced of his abilities and with an “enormous ambition to win”, Bruno Lage is returning to Sport Lisboa e Benfica to lead the professional football team. The same one that, in 2018/19, with fantastic and galvanizing football, led to the 37th National Championship in the Club's centenary history. President Rui Costa explained the conviction of the “quick and easy choice” on Thursday, September 5, at the Benfica Campus.

At the press conference to present Bruno Lage, scheduled for late afternoon on Thursday, September 5, at the Benfica Campus, the President of Sport Lisboa e Benfica began by explaining the reasons and criteria behind the decision to return home a man who grew up and spent a large part of his football career at the club.

"It is with great pride that I present Bruno Lage. It's a quick and easy choice on our part, as it's a homecoming for one of our own, who has the profile and quality that we feel is necessary at the moment to manage Benfica's first team. More than just a connoisseur of the club from his years here, he's a successful coach who won titles at Benfica, in the first team, in a period that was even more complicated than the one we're living through today. Within all these circumstances, we considered, very quickly, that Bruno [Lage] met all the conditions and would have our support to manage Benfica's first team," he said.

Rui Costa, knowing that each member and fan of the Club has “their own choices and preferences”, stressed his certainty that “from this moment on Bruno [Lage] will have the support and respect of all Benfiquistas”.

He went on to address the 48-year-old coach from Setubal: "You're the coach for all Benfica fans. I have no doubt that, Bruno, in addition to your qualities as a coach, you will also have what all Benfica fans want to see. I'm absolutely certain that you'll live every day, every training session and every game at this club with the feeling with which you've always represented it: the feeling of every Benfiquista. For all these reasons, from the technical side to the sentimental side, and the fact that we're bringing back a coach who has already had success at home, who is from our house, I have no doubt that he will be the right coach for this moment."

The President also wished the eagles' new technical helmsman every success. "Bruno [Lage], may you be as successful as you've ever been at this club, may you repeat what you've already achieved at the club and at the end of the year we can retake this photo [Bruno Lage hoisting the National Champion trophy] with the 39th title, which is the wish of all Benfica fans. I know you're going to fight for it like every one of us. Welcome home, a home that is yours. Just now, when we met outside, it seemed like a normal day for us, given the years you've been here. May you have the greatest success, may you repeat everything you've already achieved at this club. Welcome home, welcome back", finished Rui Costa.

THE KISS ON THE CREST OF THE SACRED MANTLE

After the President's speech, coach Bruno Lage - who signed a contract for two seasons (until 2026) and, at the end of the presentation, kissed the Sacred Mantle crest he received from Rui Costa - also made a statement, before answering questions from journalists.

"Good afternoon, I'm going to start where the President left off. I'd like to tell all Benfiquistas that there's no doubt about the work we're going to do, the dedication with which I've come and the motivation with which I've come, and the energy to do a good job again, as I've always done, from the grassroots, from the Under-11s to the professional team," he started by saying.

"No one in this room knows what I'm about to share with you, because as fate would have it, I'm returning to this house today and tomorrow [Friday, September 6], at the first training session, I'll be 20 years old since I first entered this house to train 10-year-old boys. That's why I'm so proud to be here, and to be seeing journalists who saw me grow up when I was coaching these kids. You'll have to excuse me, and before the press conference starts, I'll come up to you and say hello," he finished, walking over to each of the journalists present in the Benfica Campus press room to greet them personally.

Allow me to get the ball rolling straight away. What kind of football do you want your team to play?

I want the football that the fans like to see, and that they've seen for many years. It's not just me, but they've seen Benfica play for many years. Attacking football, dynamic football, entertaining football and, above all, football that draws the fans into the stands. That's what we always want. I remember and always remember - because we talked about it several times - what my first game was. My first game was very much like that, it was the passion that was lived and the involvement that was lived, between what was the passion of the fans and the support that they gave to the players and the return that the players gave that day. We were losing the game [Benfica-Rio Ave on matchday 16 of the 2018/19 league season], and it was through this union between fans and players that the Reconquista took place. And that's where we have to start. Attractive football, dynamic football, attacking football, football with goals, and winning back our fans.

Four years on: which coach is he today? What can we expect? What message can he leave the fans?

Our path is one of learning. That's why every last experience I've had has always been about learning. It's in this sense that I lead my life, because it's only in this way, in the sense of becoming better every day, that a coach like me, who starts out in this house coaching 10-year-olds, can reach this position again 20 years later. It's always someone with a very positive energy and an enormous desire to do a good job. That's my motivation and my energy. That's going to be my first step: to make the most of everyone, the structure, as I always have, and also the quality we have in our squad. To the fans... not long ago I had the chance to talk to some of your colleagues [journalists] about what my time at Benfica had been like, and I got the feeling that my story at Benfica couldn't end like that. As fate would have it, today, in Benfica's current situation, I could be available to return to this club. What I feel is an enormous desire to bring back the feeling of being a Benfica fan. Because that's what I feel when I'm talking to people. That people can't describe what it's like to be Benfica, but people can feel what it's like to be Benfica. It's almost like the nervous system that runs through every part of the body and is always present. It's that flame that we have to bring here immediately to give our players a lot of energy. The message I want to send out to the fans is: regardless of the moment, we have to be for Benfica, we have to unite so that we can get back to our daily work, of a lot of sacrifice; with the unity of everyone, we can reach the end with success.

Can you promise the fans that the team will play twice as well as it has at the moment? The fans are suspicious of you, you're not a household name. Would you like to use the same expression that Rúben Amorim used when he arrived at Sporting? “What if it goes well?”

Look, you know me, I'm very genuine, we have to look at successful people and learn from them. But I like to look at what I've been doing all along and start from me. So I'm not going to repeat the double or the “if it happens”. I'll tell you what I felt from the start, and what I felt when the President spoke to me: an enormous desire to bring me in, and me with an enormous desire to come and work in my home. I feel at home, I'm at home and, from the way I started, there's no doubt in my mind that what I'm going to do... and the dedication I put into my work and my professionalism is to make the team grow in line with what the fans like to see the team play.

We spoke a year ago, even before you took over at Botafogo, and you said that the ideal project for your career was something that had a clear path, a club that had clear objectives, not just in the short term, but for the future. NIn your talks with the President, do you have any minimum objectives? What are they for this season, and for the future? Taking into account what has changed over the last few years and the experience he has gained, would the Bruno Lage of today do anything different to try and change the outcome of his last spell at Benfica?

The conversation with the President was always very clear, very objective, and there are things that are inherent to Benfica's greatness. We have to look at what our path is, what we have to do over the next nine months. The first step is training tomorrow [Friday, September 6], and then the game we have to prepare for, with Santa Clara [matchday 5 of the Liga Betclic]. I think it's more than clear what our objectives are. The recent past has told us that the point deficit we have for 1st [place] is not significant and that it is possible to recover. In addition to the league, we have several competitions in which we have clear and very well-defined objectives, based on Benfica's greatness. Second point: I don't think too much about the past, I don't look too far back. Bruno Lage is different today. The President talked about the way I left here, the last day I left here. Three and a half years later, I've arrived, and I've arrived with gray hair. And these gray hairs help me to see things from a distance, with a different clarity and even in a completely different emotional way. If I, the person, the man and the coach that I am today, looked back and didn't understand that at one point I could have done things differently, my learning path wouldn't have been this one. But that's not what you do. It's at that moment, and it's in that situation. So the actions remain, and we have to look at them, learn from them and make a successful path.

That's what I promise, to win and play well and work hard. That's what I promise and that's what we're going to do. I'm sorry to interrupt you, it's so you can feel the energy with which I arrive.

What is your assessment of the squad, given that Bruno Lage didn't put it together? Do you have any guarantees?

If you look back over the various conferences, my idea of a squad was always a short, competitive and balanced one. Short in the sense of having two players per position, balanced, giving me the chance to play in different ways, in other words, to look at the squad and, either before games or during the game, to be able to change the system or the dynamic itself depending on the characteristics of the squad and to be competitive at home and abroad. That's why, when I look at this squad, I see it that way. Competitive players, a short squad that allows me to work and a competitive squad internally, which is the greatest guarantee of our players' progress and daily work, is that they feel that there are no guaranteed places, that I have to work every day to get my space, and [a squad] that allows me to have solutions depending on the calendar, every three days we're playing. Looking at it that way, I think we've done an excellent job in building the squad.

As a Benfica fan, how did you view the departures of João Neves, Neres and Marcos Leonardo?

How did I see it? You know... Which club in recent years has managed to keep its best players? So what's most important, regardless of the departures, is that we look at the squad and feel that it's been made, that it's fit and that it's competitive for what lies ahead. I don't know Neres and Marcos Leonardo, any more than I know João Neves. Now, of course, that always leaves us... When you see a player leave home, it's always a reason for us to feel fulfilled in a good way, in the work that's been done in the youth system, in the way the players reach the first team. Then, as easy as it is on that side [of the journalists] to analyze things in a yes or no way, what happens on this side, the proposal that reaches the club, the proposal that reaches the player... There are decisions that have to be made. I wasn't here, so I can't tell you what happened, but I've seen many players take that step, and that's also the way Benfica has worked. João Félix left with the title, João Neves left with the title. And our job, and mine, because I'm always looking at the youth system, is to always look and see if we have men and players like Rúben Dias, João Félix, Ferro, Tino [Florentino], João Neves, Renato Sanches to defend Benfica's colors.